OREANDA-NEWS. EIB President Werner Hoyer has told the European Commission’s flagship economic event that the thinking behind the European Fund for Investment was in many ways “revolutionary”. President Hoyer and Jyrki Katainen ,Vice-President of the European Commission both delivered keynote speeches  at the BEF attended by key influencers and figures in European economic policy.

The Investment Plan for Europe and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) was the subject of a high level panel called "Investment as an Engine for Growth" in which President Hoyer was participating, alongside Jyrki Katainen, Roberto Gualtieri MEP, Chair of the European Parliament's Econ Committee, Mario Caldonazzo, Chief Executive officer of Finarvedi Spa and Guntram Wolff, Director of the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel.

Addressing the audience at the event last week in Place Flagey in Brussels, President Hoyer said, “We have lost almost a decade where Europe has been inward looking, busy with necessary reforms, most of them I believe very successful, though painful as reforms can always be. Now we are in the situation where we realise in these almost 10 years, the world around us has moved forward and the competiveness of Europe has suffered. We have to realise that the biggest challenge we have to face is the preservation of our strong position in the global markets.  And that is at stake.”

President Hoyer explained how the Investment Plan , and its European Fund for Strategic Investment had evolved to address not just the investment gap – but "another big gap which is relevant on the global stage, that is the innovation gap."